Super Mario Crossover Is A Retro Gamer’s Dream

As the name implies, Super Mario Crossover is a flash-based remix of the classic Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, that features not only Mario, but a few of his iconic 8-bit friends.

It’s practically the videogame equivalent of that Cartoon All–Starsto theRescue special from the early 90’s, without the heavy-handed anti-drugs message. Which, no disrespect to the overall message (Say no to drugs kids!), wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for all my favorite cartoons to be doing in my childhood-inspired dreams.

None the less, Super Mario Crossover is a successful blending of those favorite 8-bit games, albeit it in a straightforward package. Basically if you’ve played Super Mario Bros., well then there is really nothing to explain gameplay or structure wise. It’s all the same here, but the main difference is the character selection department. Besides good old Mario to control, you can select other classic protagonists from other retro games of that era.

You can also choose from Simon Belmont from Castlevaina, Link from The Legend of Zelda, Samus from Metroid, Mega Man, and Bill from Contra. All of them include their standard set of abilities worked perfectly into the game.

For example, in his standard form, Simon Belmont is equipped with his whip and axe special (which is mapped with an alternative button.) Receiving a power up though, mushroom or flower in this case, changes this up by now giving Simon his throwing cross that can pass through multiple goobas and return just like it’s usual Castlevania form.

The same formula works with each character as Mega Man gains his Mega Buster, or Bill gains his rapid-fire gun. It’s pretty fun just to mess around and experiment with each character’s unique ability and see how they work in Mario’s block-hitting and tube-jumping world.

A really fantastic touch which was incorporated in to the game’s presentation, was the individual theme songs that are played depending on which character is selected. I don’t think I could have imagined playing word 1-2 and having the tune to Metroid fit together so well, but take my word for it, it does.

I should also mention, that there have been other flash games that have done the crossover feature. But for some reason when you do a Mario one, the name seems to gain more attention, and deservedly so. It’s a well polished little game with lots of cool details packed in.

Recently the creator, Jay Pavlina, sat down with GameXplain to discuss Super Mario Bros. Crossover and some of the content that was left out- apparently quite a but. So I highly recommend taking a gander at that after you’re done fooling with the game on Newgrounds.

One response to “Super Mario Crossover Is A Retro Gamer’s Dream”

I ended up making this my Flash Game of the Month for BMC. One of the most amazing things to me was how well he worked each characters abilities to make it work in the Mushroom Kingdom. For example, Mega Man’s jump is almost twice as high as it is in the Mega Man series, and Simon has a double-jump. Little game design choices like that make a world of difference.